Birmingham teen sentenced to life without parole for capital murder

A Sherman Heights teenager received a mandatory sentence of life without parole today in a 2007 capital murder case in which he shot a friend while sitting in his car, then was seen wearing the victim's bloody cap.

Dedric Mullins, 18, was convicted in May of capital murder in the Sept. 9, 2007, death of Charles Lawrence, who was shot once in the back of his head in a vacant lot off Slayden Avenue where police have found at least two other homicide victims.

Dedric Mullins

Life without parole was the only sentencing option for Jefferson County Circuit Judge Virginia Vinson. Mullins, who was 16 when he killed Lawrence, was not eligible for the death penalty because of his age and the case did not meet any of the criteria outlined in Alabama law for imposing a death sentence.

Car keys belonging to Lawrence, 21, were found in some woods near where his body was found, slumped in the front seat of his car with the windows rolled up and intact.

At the murder scene, police also found a bloody shirt, a .38-caliber shell casing and Mullins' fingerprint inside the victim's car. The defendant was seen that day walking from Slayden Avenue, shirtless with blood on several parts of his body and wearing the victim's blood-stained cap, according to testimony in an earlier hearing.